Popular entertainment before the advent of television had generally been a large-group activity, where people watched movies as part of an audience or cheered teams as part of a crowd, whereas television was watched in the privacy of the home.
As a family, we liked situation comedies, and the shows we liked the most were The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, and Leave it to Beaver.
We preferred these shows because the characters resolved everyday problems in half an hour and the shows depicted the happiness of family togetherness.
Even religion capitalized on the power of television. Celebrity preachers and priests like Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, and my grandmother’s favorite, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, took to the air waves to spread the Christian gospel.
In regard to sports, TV viewing audiences that once filled a stadium capacity of thousands could now include millions.
Many teenagers like me shared a liking for rock-and-roll, a type of music that a musician friend explained adopted urban Black rhythm-and-blues for a white mass market. My friend also explained that rhythm-and-blues was the offspring of traditional blues and gospel music and, in turn, rock-and-roll music augmented its Black roots with country/western and Latin music.
Portable phonographs and 45 rpm records let us listen to rock-and-roll in our own rooms (limited for me), and car radios and transistor radios extended disc jockeys’ reach beyond our homes. The result was separate music for young listeners and separate advertising for teenage consumers.
The chief revolutionary of popular music of the ’50s was Elvis Presley, a former truck driver from Mississippi who, with his suggestive gyrations, became the King of ’50s music, much to the chagrin of our parents.
Listening and dancing to rock-and-roll became a rite of passage for millions of teens. Most of my pals were hooked on this music, maybe because it carried a heavy beat and driving rhythms.
Traditionists, mostly older adults, were repelled by most of the culture of this period.
Movie star Marilyn Monroe with her rather ingenuous smile, helped to popularize “sensuousness,” as my grandmother often said, as did Playboy, a popular magazine designed for male perusal.
By the time 1960 arrived, Americans were well on their way to becoming consumers of mass-produced standardized products, which were advertised in the electronic and print mediums.
Many critics lamented this new consumer lifestyle. My uncle Gene was the most conservative member of our family. He disliked Truman, rock-and-roll, and Elvis, but he liked Ike, Guy Lombardo, and Perry Como.
The bookshelf in his bedroom was filled with books by conservative authors. He was elated when I told him I was reading a book written by Milton Friedman and one by William F. Buckley.
I didn’t tell him, though, that these books were required reading for a class I was taking in contemporary American literature.